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Here's why you should take a holistic approach to workplace experience

How beneficial to the business is a holistic workplace experience (WX) strategy that includes technology, operations, culture, and employee experience?

According to new research by Avanade surveying 1,375 senior decision-makers across globally, a workplace transformation that includes those four aspects could increase annual revenues by 16% and reduce operational cost by 13%. Based on the aggregated annual revenues of the participants' organisations, this could deliver approximately US$2bn in revenue.

Hence, it comes as no surprise that 96% of respondents, which included C-suite roles across the board, including CEOs, senior HR, Operations, IT, marketing services stakeholders and other business leaders, agreed that a successful workplace experience transformation requires a holistic approach.

When it comes to who should lead the transformation, 38% said an executive leadership team member should lead workplace transformation with a cross-functional group. Whereas, slightly more than two in five (26%) indicated they would like to see their IT lead take charge of transformation with no other functional leads involved.

However, when asked about deployment, approximately half (47% to 58%) of senior decision makers reported that their organisation’s executive leadership should be involved in deploying a transformation.

While the case for workplace transformation is compelling, challenges persist across multiple areas. For instance, almost 47% cited modernising IT as a significant challenge, while 34% jointly cited upskilling talent, recruiting talent, and managing evergreen IT as additional obstacles companies need to overcome when implementing workplace experience strategies.

In addition, security was another key area highlighted by participants with 92% agreeing that 'attack opportunities' facing enterprises are increasing in both scope and complexity.

Despite these challenges, almost all senior decision-makers interviewed emphasized the importance of the following elements for a successful WX transformation:

  • Modernising workplace platforms and services (99%)
  • Optimising/modernising operations (96%)
  • Bridging the physical and digital gap (95%)
  • Reimagining culture and employee experience (94%)

Other key findings include:

  • 94% of respondents cited their employees as a main source of competitive advantage for their business.
  • 92% believed ensuring that the IT security of an organisation is at its best and most up-to-date will help to deter threats from outside and inside the business.

Photo / 123RF

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